Diagnostic tools are generally available for diagnostic testing of automotive vehicle electronic devices. The communication protocol used for diagnostic communications between the devices and the tools may vary from device to device in a single vehicle or may vary over the wide range of vehicle makes, models, or model years that are to be diagnosed. Conventional diagnostic tools may support only one communication protocol, or may need to be manually reconfigured to support communication protocol variations. Even after manual reconfiguration, which may significantly delay the diagnostic test process and which increases part wear and the potential for reconfiguration error, the conventional tool may only support communication with a limited number of automotive electronic devices. Accordingly, more than one diagnostic tool may be required for diagnostic testing of even a single automotive vehicle. Furthermore, to establish communications with an individual electronic device on a vehicle, the diagnostic tool operator may be required to carry out a significant initialization and identification process which is time consuming and is prone to error.
To maintain the necessary number of up to date diagnostic tools needed for diagnostic testing of a variety of vehicle makes, models or model years may involve considerable expense. Manual reconfiguring of conventional diagnostic tools or switching between diagnostic tools to accommodate electronic device of various communication protocols is cumbersome and time consuming.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to diagnose automotive vehicle electronic devices with a single tool capable of communicating under a broad range of communication protocols without manual reconfiguration and without lengthy manual device identification and initialization processes.